Connecting gearing



. v A. TAUB CONNEGTING GEARING Filed Feb. '7. 1923 /Z @uvam/Coz Patented ev. A11, 1924.

UNTED STATES "1,514,938 PATENT OFFICE.

ALEX TAUB, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR TO GENERAL MOTORS CORPORA- TION', OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN,

A coaronATroN or iirznrwvAnE.

coNNno'rrNG GEARING.

Application led February 7,1923. Serial No. 617,579. u

To all 'whom it* 'may concern:

Be it known that I, ALEX TAUB, a citizen of the United States of America, and" a resident of Detroit, county of Wayne, and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Connecting Gearing, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which the invention relates to make and use the same, reference being made therein to the accompanyin drawings, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to an ,arrangement i of, and connections for, a dynamo-electric machlne so that it may operate as a motor,

. as in starting an internal combustion engine,

and may also operate as a generator, as

for: example to charge the battery when the engine is running. An object of the invention is to provide compact and efiicient equipment of this character which will reuire a minimum of attention from the river. e'

Having this object in View, the invention contemplates the use of a movable clutch member which operates automatically when the vdirection of drive changes, e. g., when the engine starts. Preferably reduction gearing is arranged to be effective when the clutch member is in one position, las when starting, and directhigh speed connections are substituted therefor by movement of the clutch member to its opposite (charging) position; In one very effective arrangement, the clutch member is operated by the reversal 'in direction of axial thrust be! tween interineshing spiral tooth gears, connected respectivel to the engine and to the clutch, member, t e direction of the axial thrust Idepending on which gear drives the other and consequently reversing when the engine starts. A

The above and other features ofthel in vention, includin various novel combinations and desirab e particular constructions,

' will be apparent from the following descripvinterval combustion engine, and therefore as as being geared to the engine crankshaft.

The machine l0 has an armature, shaft 14, journaled in a ball bearing 16,threaded to receive a collar 18,- and reduced at its end to form an eccentric' or crank pin 20 on which is mounted a pinion or' gear 22. The) end of the pin 20is provided with a tooth 2A, to constitute one member of av positive clutch. Meshing with the leftehand end of pinion 22 (Fig. 1) is an internal ring gear 26, provided onits outer periphery with notches 28 to receive rollers 30, constituting a roller clutch of a well known type, which allows the rin gear to turn in a clockwise direction in igure 2, but locks it to the casing of the machine against Aturning in` the opposite direction.

Surrounding the right hand end'of pinion 22 (Fig. 1) is a gear 32, formedwith internal teeth meshing with thepinion and with externalv teeth meshing with the cam-shaft gear 12 Gear.32 is axially slidable on a stub shaft 34 carried by the casing of machine 10, and on its inner face is provided withithree teeth 36, any one of which may engage tooth 24, sothat the art` ofthe gear on which the teeth are ormed constitutes, in eect, an axially movable clutch member operated by the gear. The teeth of gear 121, and the external teeth of gear 32,V as y clearly shown in Figurel, are of spiral form, and are inclined in such a direction that when the gear 32 is driving the engine through the cani-shaft y axial thrust on gear 32 toward the right in Figure 1, while when the engine starts and the cam-shaft ar drives gear 32 the thrustI is reversed an is to the left operating to gear -12 there is an 1 move the gear to close the clutch by engagement of a tooth 36 with tooth 24.

26 differs from the number of internal teeth on gear 32; for example, gear 32 may have one less tooth than ring gear 26.

In operation, when the switch connecting machine 10 to the battery is closed, the engine being at rest, the axial thrust of the spiral teeth moves gear 32 to the right, moving the clutch member out of engagement with the end of the armature shaft. Pinion 22 is carried around by pin 20, rolling on gears 26 and 32. As the-latter gear has one less tooth thanthe former, and asit is held by the" load of the engine on gear 12, there is a tendency to rotate gear 26 in a counter-clockwise direction (Fig. 2). Such rotation is, however, prevented by rollers 30, which lock gear 26 to the casing of the machine, so that gear 32. is advanced one tooth for each rotation of the armature shaft, thus operating the crank shaft gear 12, powerfully but at a low speed, to start the engine.

vWhen the engine starts, gear 32 is no longer held back by the cam-shaft gear 12, but is instead urged forward, and there is therefore no tendency to turn gear 26 backward; consequently gears 26 and 32,-

locked together by pinion 22, turn forward as a unit at a speed determined by camshaft gear 12, while the reversal of the a'xial thrust on the spiral teeth moves to the left (Fig. l) the clutch member formed on gear 32, so that kthe armature shaft also is driven at this same and relatively high speed. That is to say, the armature shaft, the pinion, and 4both gears 26 and 32, are-all rotated as a unit by gear 12 at a speed determined by and proportional to the engine speed. At this high speed the voltage of the armature current will be higher than the voltage of the battery, and the machine will therefore operate as a generator to charge the battery.

In the modiiication shown in Figure 4, in lieu of the rollers 30, I provide clutch pins 50, spaced about the casing, each of which is longitudinally slidable in a recess in the casing. EachL pin has a semi-cylindrical central portion with a fiat face bearing against the exterior of gear 26, and at opposite ends has cylindrical portions 52 and 54. Portion 52 seats inan annular groove 56 in gear 32, so that the pin moves axially with the gear but without turning. Portion 54 constitutes a tooth, arranged to engage one of a set of teeth 58, formed on the edge of ring gear 26. Thus when gear 32 moves to the right, when the engine is being started, it carries wlth it pins 50, which lock ring gear 26 to the casing to operate the reduction gearing as explained above, while when the engine starts and gear 32 moves to the left,'ring gear 26 is released.

Vhile desirable embodiments of my invention have been described above, obviously many modifications are possible, and it is not my intention to limit the scope of the invention to the forms so described, or otherwise than by the terms of the appended claims.

I claim: l

l. Connecting gearing comprising, in combination, an eccentric or crank pin, a pinion rotatably mounted thereon, a pair of co-axial internal gears both of which mesh with said pinion, the internal gears difering in number of teeth, an over runnino'` roller clutch holding one of -said internal gears from turning in one direction and leaving it free to turn in the opposite direction, the other of said internal gears having external spiral teeth to operate as described and being axially-movable according to the thrust on the external teeth, and a clutch between saiidv pin and the axially-movable gear operated by axial movement of the gear.

.2. Connecting gearing comprising, in combination, an eccentric or crank pin, a pinion rotatably mounted thereon, a pair of coaxial internal gears both of which mesh with said pinion, the internal gears differing in number of teeth, means holding one of said internal gears from turning in one direction and leaving it free to turn in the opposite direction, the other of said internal gears having external spiral teeth to operate as described and being axially movable accordingl to the thrust on the external teeth and a clutch between said pin and the axially-movable `gear operated by axial movement of the gear.

In testimony whereof I ALEX TAUB.

sov

aiix my signature. 

